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Mansur Abdullahi hails Super Falcons’ win against New Zealand
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Former assistant coach of the Nigeria U-20 Women’s national team, Mansur Abdullahi says it wasn’t easy for Super Falcons to defeat 25th ranked New Zealand 3-0 in an international friendly match on Tuesday.
Onome Ebi headed the Super Falcons in front after 34 minutes at the Mardan Sports Complex before Jennifer Echegini made it two after some excellent wing play by Michelle Alozie in the 48th minute and returning Desire Oparanozie held up the ball and slice past the goalkeeper to notch the third for Randy Waldrum’s ladies.
“Looking at the pedigree of New Zealand and their position on the FIFA Ranking, they are among the top 25 ranked teams in the world, and Nigeria in 52nd position showed that it was a good win for the team,” Mansur told Brila FM.
“It’s just to plan and remain focused ahead of the World Cup because it has been a long since we last saw the Super Falcons get it right in terms of consecutive results.
“Getting this result and looking at one of the players that I have been agitating for her invitation, Desire Oparanozie scoring. I am happy that she scored one of the goals.
“Every game, different preparation. The World Cup is in the next few months. Kudos to the team but a lot of work has to be done. You can imagine the third goal came in about the 94th minute during the extra time.
“This means they have a lot of work to do and with the opportunities coming their way, they should be able to make use of it very well. They have to improve their goal-scoring abilities.”
Nigeria will play in Group B against co-hosts Australia, the Republic of Ireland, and Canada at the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals slated from 20 July to 20 August.
Australia ended England’s 30-match unbeaten run as Sam Kerr inspired a 2-0 win, while Republic of Ireland had back-to-back defeats to world champions, the United States of America and Canada bowed 3-1 to France during the international friendly week.
